Home

Bruce, Natasha and Pasha were greeted by a loving group of sweet friends and Leah (she is also sweet and loving but family :-) ). Wow it was exhausting waiting for them I can only imagine how they felt.



Natasha and Pasha were overwhelmed but did just fine with the big group of people all staring at them. Bruce just started walking to the car. I'm kind of serious. He was ready to get on out of there.



They are all tucked in and I can hear someone snoring upstairs...glad they aren't in my room.



People say we should have some honeymoon time before we face the hard stuff. I'm all for that honeymoon stuff to last as long as possible.



Abigail, Bradley and Benjamin are glad they are finally here.



Wow we need a bigger house.



Thank all of you for your prayers for these sweet kids. You can't know how much of a difference you lifting us up to the Lord has meant. Keep it up we will need it.



I'm sure Bruce will give you more info once the jet lag wears off.



Blessings,



Michele

In Frankfurt....waiting

Our trip through KBP (Kiev Airport) was fairly uneventful. Our driver showed up promptly at 2:45 and we were at the airport by 3:30 (yes, AM). We waited until the ticket counter opened and then checked in without problems. Security went fine.

The customs lady asked to see our court documents, which thankfully Nadia had told me to keep handy. She left for a few minutes to go to a back office with our passports and boarding passes, which made me a little nervous. But, by this time Mrs. Campbell (family from Indiana who adopted a 6-7 year old boy) was in line right behind us. She said her facilitator told her to expect some of these types of shenanigans from customs just as a ploy to freak you out. I don't know what she did behind closed doors, but she came back and allowed us through, and that's what was most important.

Now we're sitting in the Frankfurt airport at our gate waiting for our flight. We have about 5 hours to wait, so I'm sure we'll get up and walk around a bit eventually.

Looking forward to seeing everyone in Denver.

Thanks,

Bruce

Here are a few pics from the last few days.

First, one of N, P and our facilitator in Kherson, Tanya:

Here we are having lunch with the Houghton's, Julia and Karen Springs:

Here's the group after taking the fernicular up the hill and walking across the church square (can't remember which church):

And Richard insisted that he take a picture with me actually in it.

And, finally, here's a pic of the kids with our translator in Kiev, Nadia.:

Home Tomorrow!

Wow..I think I left too many thing until the end. Right now that doesn't matter because they are coming ready or not.

The flight into Denver is schedueled to arrive at 3:45pm. They do have to go through customs so who know when they will emerge from the glass doors. The flight is Luftansa 446 if you are wanting to help with the grand welcome at the airport and want to check on the flight status.



Can't wait to see Natasha Grace and Pasha Timothy...and of course Bruce Alvin :-).

Tix Changed For Tuesday

Coming home Tuesday. See some of you at the airport. Time for bed. Have to get us all up at 2:15 am for a 2:45 am pick up.

Bruce

Have Visas!

Hi All,

This has been a long day, but the net result is good! We have Visas and can now come home. I am trying to get our Wednesday tickets changed to Tuesday and if the change fees aren't too high, we'll come home tomorrow. If they are exorbitant, we will come home on Wednesday.

Our day started with a 6:45 wake-up call and then Oleg picked us up around 7:30. First stop was the US Embassy where we submitted our documents and completed the Immigration Visa request forms. That took about an hour and when we submitted them, the assistant said our Visas would be ready tomorrow at 2PM. I asked if there was any possibility of having them done today. She said she wasn't sure if we could get everything done, but they'd try. So, she said come back at 2PM.

From the embassy we went to the medical clinic where we waited for about an hour before our doctor arrived and was able to see us. The exams went fine and by about 12:30 we were finished there with our medical docs and headed back to the embassy. However, we had about an hour to kill and we had not eaten since a light breakfast at around 7am. So, we stopped and got a bite with our translator Nadia.

Then at 2PM we were back at the embassy where we met 2 other families waiting to get their newly adopted kids' Visas. One family was from Indiana and the other from Texas. We were happy when we were called up by the consolate representative who said they would probably be able to get the Visas today, but it would take another hour. In that hour we chatted with the other families and they received their Visas. Then we received ours too (!) at around 3PM.

So, we are officially done and will be heading home soon. We are awaiting confirmation of seat availability for flights tomorrow (Tuesday) instead of Wednesday. We're hoping to travel tomorrow and be home a day early.

I'll do a final update once we have seats confirmed.

Thanks!

Bruce

In Kiev Again!

Thanks to Michele's stealth (and brief) post, you know at the very least that we received our passports yesterday (Friday). Tanya called me at 3-ish and said that the passports were ready. So, we all headed over to the passport office with smiles on our faces as we anticipated a simple "pick-up". Well, you'll recall "it's Ukraine" so it was a little more involved than that.

When we arrived, Tanya went into the passport office and came back out moments later looking frustrated. Apparently, we were missing a stamp from the director and the director had stepped out. They did not know if or when he might come back. It was now about 4-ish so we just sat and waited outside. Finally, around 5PM we were ready to leave when he showed up!

Again, we thought, this will only take a few minutes....but, you got it, "it's Ukraine"! over an hour later they finally called us into the office where I double-checked and signed for the passports.

We had hoped that we could catch a night train back up to Kiev on Friday night. Unfortunately, Tanya had found out that, since the quarantine at the universities had been lifted and school was supposed to start again on Monday, there were no seats whatsoever to be purchased beforehand.

So, Tanya went to the train station around 8PM to be "first in line" to get any tickets that became available due to "no shows" or "special" availability. We waited at the Bible House for a call from Tanya. She called at 8:05 and said, "I have tickets for you and the taxi is on its way to pick you up." We met Tanya at the front of the train station and then made our way to the train car where our cabin was.

It turns out that our "special" tickets were for the cabin normally occupied by the ladies who "manage" this particular car...kind of like the train car "attendants". We didn't have "real" tickets, as these were obtained "under the table" and actually illegally. But hey, "it's Ukraine", so I was fine with it. Once we got on and took off, I sealed the transaction with the train attendant (i.e. I gave her the cash!) and we settled in for the night.

I don't think any of us slept too well, but we all knew that in a matter of 13 hours we'd be in Kiev on the next and final step of our journey.

Oleg met us at the train station and took us to our apartment. It is a very nice apartment, newly appointment with everything. It was a little more expensive than I had anticipated, but they dropped the price by $30 a night when I asked if they had anything cheaper. Sometimes, it pays to be a Dutchman! The apartment is about a 10 minute walk from the main Independence Square.

We just returned from a very much needed lunch at Cenentano's down by the square and Natasha and Pasha are watching TV while I check email and post to the blog.

We're hoping to go to church with Pasha's friend Julia tomorrow and then hope to meet up with Karen Springs in the afternoon. Monday we will go in the morning to complete medical exams and then to the US Consulate to get immigration Visas. If we're done with everything on Monday, I may just try to get us tickets home for Tuesday. We'll see how it goes.

Well, that's all for now. I'm going to head out and get some groceries. Thanks for everyone's thoughts and prayers. The last couple of days I've especially appreciated them.

More later,

Bruce